Guided missile

A guided missile is a self-powered weapon, in the family of precision-guided munitions (PGM) that can alter its flight or ballistic characteristics in order to correct aiming errors and hit a target. Guided missiles are assumed to be independently powered during at least part of its flight, differentiated from guided bombs and artillery-launched guided shells. The part of the missile that contains the materials or mechanism that will affect the target is the missile's warhead; ballistic missile warheads are contained in reentry vehicles of various capabilities.

Guidance

Missiles, in general, follow one of two guidance paradigms:

• Go onto location in space (GOLIS), where guidance directs the weapon to a specific set of geographical coordinates and whatever is located at those coordinates;
• Go onto target (GOT), in which the weapon recognizes a specific target, which may be moving, and adjusts its course based on sensor input or human commands, in order to hit that target.

A given missile may be command-guided, with it completely under the control of a human operator. It may be partially autonomous, where, for example, the person launches it points it at the target until onboard sensors can take control. It may be "fire and forget" or fully autonomous, such that it needs no human control once it has been give target information.

Classification by launcher and target location

There are several ways to classify guided missiles. One of the most basic covers the launching platform and the target location, "location" here being agnostic to GOLIS or GOT. Each one of these types has further subdivisions, such as range, mobility, guidance, payload, etc.

Launching platform	Target location	Missile type	Example
Surface	Surface	surface-to-surface missile (SSM)	U.S. Minuteman ICBM, German V-2 SRBM, Soviet R-11 (NATO designation SA-1 SCUD)
Surface	Air	surface-to-air missile (SAM)	Soviet/Russian S-75 Dvina (NATO designation SA-2 GUIDELINE, U.S. MIM-104 Patriot
Surface	Underwater	surface-to-underwater missile (SUM)	Russian RPK-2 Viyuga (NATO designation SS-N-15 STARFISH, U.S. RUM-139 Vertical Launch ASROC
Surface	Space [Note 1]	anti-ballistic missile (ABM), anti-satellite missile	U.S. RIM-161 Standard SM-3, Israeli Arrow
Air	Air	air-to-air missile (AAM)	U.S. AIM-9 Sidewinder, Russian Vympel R-27 (NATO designation AA-10 ALAMO
Air	Surface	air-to-surface missile (ASM)	U.K. Brimstone, U.S. AGM-88 HARM anti-radiation missile, U.S. AGM-86 ALCM
Underwater	Surface	underwater-to-surface missile (USM)	U.S. and U.K. Trident II (D5) UGM-133A, French M45
Underwater	Underwater	underwater-to-underwater missile (UUM)	U.S. UUM-44 SUBROC, Russian RPK-2 Viyuga (NATO designation SS-N-15 STARFISH

• Note 1: anti-ballistic missiles may actually intercept in space, in the upper atmosphere, or lower atmosphere. For this chart, the types are all considered surface-to-space.

Specialized missile subtypes

Anti-shipping missiles

While anti-shipping missiles are launched by surface, subsurface, or air platforms, their design requirements differ from anti-surface missiles intended for use over land. Their guidance systems must cope with the constantly changing radar return from the ocean, yet be able to recognize a ship surrounded by radar "clutter".

Many anti-shipping missiles fly at extremely low altitude, and are called "sea-skimming". Just as the ocean interferes with the missile's own guidance system, it also interferes with the enemy's warning and fire control radar. A sea-skimming missile will also enter the enemy radar field of view only when close to the target, when there is minimal time to engage it.